Three planks

The chainsaw started up OK and did a Stirling job on three planks. I ran out of gas in the middle of the third, so thought I would take a snap as I needed to mix up a new batch of gas and oil. No bits fell off the guide and all the lock bolts held. It was easy enough to start the saw even with it on its side in mid cut, but the gas tank cap tends to splutter for some reason, so when the saw is left on its side after cutting there is more than a hint of smoke. This may mean I should have a bucket of water on hand as the splutter might decide to ignite at some point.
It was only when I finished for lunch that I realised that the job had taken a heavy toll on the shoulder, maintaining a steady push on the wild and hungry beast was stressful. And it takes quite a tug on the rope to start up. I may invest in an aluminium ladder and convert that to take the place of the battens, then I can fit a winch to allow me to wind the thing through its lateral cutting motion. In the explanations I looked at on the web they use battens for the first cut and then adjust the guide to take the remaining cuts using the flat surface cut by the saw as a guide. I just laid the battens each time and knocked in a couple of flooring nails on either side of each of them at the very ends to stop them from sliding from side to side. In the first cut I used a spirit level to mark up either end of the log and nailed battens wider than the log onto the ends and then attached the 'rail' battens to them. I am glad I didn't try and fit rollers on the thing, the skids are fine and they push the sawdust out of the way where a roller would probably ride up on it and bind the saw in the cut. The chain seems to stay fairly well oiled, but perhaps a little more would be good on a wider cut.
We have been negotiating to purchase the house we live in and the afternoon went on finalising contracts for that. Interestingly the address for the land our house is on does not appear on any map, nevertheless we are here and we now own the house and pay ground rent on the mythical plot of land. The lawyer said someone had forgotten to write in the numbers at some time in the past and since then the mistake has been perpetuated. Platform 9 1/2. Fairly typical of the Japanese administration system to have these kind of anomalies, modern technology alongside terrible blunders allowed to live on in the machine.
More of the sawing tomorrow as long as I can get my shoulder back in shape. I am looking forward to finding something massive to try the new guide on. Being able to use the thing on site will make me appreciate its virtues much more.